Abstract: Cooking apparatus having an upper cooking platen mounted on a support arm for swinging movement between a lower cook position and a raised position. The upper platen is mounted on the support arm for limited floating movement and upper platen adjusting mechanism is provided which engages the lower platen at a plurality of spaced points and which is adjusted by a single manually operated control. Upper platen lift assist mechanism has pressurized gas cylinders arranged so that the gas cylinders do not exert substantial upward or downward force on the upper platen arm when the upper platen is in a cook position, and assist raising the upper platen when the platen support arm is lifted out of the cook position.

Abstract: A versatile conveyor oven effective to product a variety of different cooking conditions therein is described. The oven includes an elongated cabinet defining a cooking chamber having an inlet port and an outlet port with a conveyor extending through the oven from the inlet to the outlet. A plate defines the upper surface of the cooking chamber and the plate has a plurality of arrays of holes each mutually spaced from the adjacent arrays. The lower portion of the cooking chamber is defined by a plurality of discreet nozzles mutually spaced from the inlet to the outlet, each nozzle defining a slot orifice disposed transverse to the path of travel of the conveyor. A heating means is provided and the blower to deliver heated air into a plenum, and from there into an upper air chamber emptying out into the foraminous plate and into a lower chamber which empties out into the discreet nozzles.